I did two weeks of work experience last April (2015) and 1 week in the beginning of January at Amanda Kelly Design Studios.
Amanda Kelly is a print design studio, with several in studio designers, and a number of freelance designers. Every week a plethora of amazing prints are produced, with the in house designers on average producing, overwhelmingly, about 30 prints a week each?
The prints fall under several categories: ‘skins and textures’, ‘conversationals’, ‘florals’ and ‘tropicals’ to name a few. They are all printed in A2 size and headered on swanky mirrror card embossed headers. Every week the interns spend a couple of days cutting, hemming and headering the in-house designs.. (I’m a lot better at sewing straight lines than I was before my experience!)
The interns also get the fun of going to visit clients around London. We would help David (in charge of the office and the interns and a number of things I never found out exactly what!) search through all the unsold prints of the last year, and sometimes last several years!!! to hunt for a few hundred samples that fit the client demands with which to fill the suitcase. The suitcase is then taken in a private hire care to studios and head offices around London to sample the prints. Accessorize & Monsoon head office for one was amazing, a huge concrete and yellow building with a carousel art installation in the foyer, and so pristine but with a self-important hum of everyone upstairs working away.
Amanda Kelly Studios is extremely professional, on-the-ball and well-managed; and the emphasis of the importance of filing, categorising and organisation is unquestionable! The amount of work is immense, and it was so exciting to be a little part of this world for a short time. The prints were amazing, and there was a huge section of exquisite embroideries as well. By the time you’ve finished interning, you’ve pretty much seen every print and embroidery from the last year, which to me felt like a privilege. The designers were all lovely and Amanda’s energy was great, and it’s amazing as a textile student to be able to have this experience.